Mehserle justified in using Taser, expert says

MEHSERLE TRIAL

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A use-of-force expert hired to defend Johannes Mehserle at his murder trial testified Monday that the former BART police officer would have been justified in using a Taser to subdue train rider Oscar Grant because Grant fought Mehserle's efforts to handcuff him.

In calling retired Los Angeles police Capt. Greg Meyer, the defense sought to varnish Mehserle's testimony last week that he meant to deploy his Taser but got confused and accidentally fired a fatal pistol shot into Grant's back on Jan. 1, 2009.

But Meyer, who often defends police officers accused of using excessive force, faced a long and bruising cross-examination by prosecutor David Stein, who suggested he ignored critical evidence and was biased toward a client that paid him at least $44,000 for his testimony.

Stein prompted Meyer to say he had studied the Rodney King case and had concluded that the officers who beat King in 1991 did not use excessive force. At one point, Meyer referred to Grant as "the defendant in this case" before Stein corrected him.

Meyer was on the stand nearly all day, which seemed to frustrate Judge Robert Perry and his desire to get jurors deliberating before the holiday weekend. That may be difficult, as the defense has at least two more witnesses and the prosecution intends to put on rebuttal witnesses before closing arguments and jury instructions.

Court will not be in session Wednesday because of a previous commitment by a juror. Another juror has indicated that he will be unavailable starting July 7. Four alternates remain, but one of those is unavailable after Wednesday.

Officers' decisions

Meyer, under questioning by defense attorney Michael Rains, weighed in on several decisions BART officers made before the shooting that the prosecution has attacked. For instance, Meyer said the 22-year-old Grant was properly arrested by former BART Officer Anthony Pirone before he was shot by Mehserle, 28, during his handcuffing.

Grant was arrested on suspicion of resisting Pirone after he was detained for his role in a fight. Grant's arrest, Meyer said, was justifiable because he tried to avoid Pirone by ducking back into the train and because at one point he stood up after being told to sit down.

Stein, who says Grant never resisted officers, pressed Meyer on the point, leading Meyer to concede that if a person were arrested for standing after being told to sit, it would be a "cheap arrest."

Meyer said his review of video footage of the shooting convinced him that Grant resisted Mehserle's later efforts to handcuff him by keeping his right hand underneath him and using "evasive movements - twisting, turning."

A decision to use a Taser on Grant would have been sound, Meyer said, because it would have caused less severe injuries than a gun or a baton and wouldn't have inflamed the emotions of onlookers.

Stein, who contends the Taser mistake story is a fabrication, suggested that Meyer's conclusion was faulty. Pirone was holding down Grant's head and shoulders when he was shot, Stein pointed out, while Grant had, seconds earlier, offered up his hands to Mehserle.

"Resistance emerges very quickly," Meyer said.

Training called inadequate

Meyer said the Taser training Mehserle received from BART a month before the shooting was deficient because officers were not put in role-playing situations that "got their adrenaline up" and were not asked to make split-second choices between weapons.

He said he also reviewed six cases in which officers in the United States or Canada have claimed they confused their gun and Taser after killing or wounding a suspect. In each case, the officers wore the Tasers in a way that necessitated a strong-hand - or gun-hand - draw from a holster.

Meyer said police officers should draw Tasers only with their weak hands to avoid confusion. Stein asked Meyer, who has long given advice to the company that makes Tasers, whether he had said the same thing to the firm's officials.

Yes, Meyer said. "On Saturday."

Through Meyer, Stein sought to underline the differences between the known cases of "Taser confusion" and the Mehserle case. While the right-handed Mehserle wore his Taser holster for a strong-handed draw like the other officers, he differed from them in that the holster was positioned on the left side of his body. Mehserle's holster was just to the left of his belt buckle.

In most of the other cases, Stein said, the officers carried black Taser M26 weapons, while Mehserle had a yellow Taser X26 - a newer model. And many of the other officers, unlike Mehserle, immediately reported that they had mistakenly fired their gun instead of their Taser.

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